USS Hood (Excelsior class)
|Registry = NCC-42296 |owner = |operator = Starfleet |Status = Active |Datestatus = 2379 }} The USS Hood (NCC-42296) was a Federation starship that was in service with Starfleet in the late 24th century. History The Hood, under the command of Captain Robert DeSoto, was William T. Riker's assignment after he left the some time after 2361. Riker served as first officer. After completing a tour on the in 2362, Geordi La Forge was transferred to the Hood. In the course of his duties on the Hood, Will Riker refused to allow Captain DeSoto to transport to the surface of Altair III for an away mission. Riker felt the mission was too dangerous to expose the ship's CO to such a risk. ( ) Service from 2364-2369 In 2364, the Hood rendezvoused with the in orbit of Deneb IV, to transfer crew and equipment, including the ship's new first officer, William Riker, CMO Beverly Crusher, and Geordi La Forge, as well as Admiral Leonard McCoy, who inspected the medical facilities of the Enterprise. ( ) Two years later, the Hood was dispatched to the Romulan Neutral Zone in order to counter a possible Romulan sneak attack emanating from a cloaked Romulan base on Nelvana III with the goal to retake the Neutral Zone. ( ) A few months later, the Hood was due to assist the USS Enterprise on a terraforming project on Browder IV. ( ) The Hood rendezvoused with the Enterprise again a couple of weeks later to drop off Tam Elbrun for the "Tin Man" mission. ( ) In 2367, the Hood underwent a major systems upgrade at Starbase 174. ( , okudagram) The Hood was also part of Captain Picard's task force in 2368 to blockade the Klingon-Romulan border in order to cut off the Duras family from Romulan supplies. It served as a focal point and anchor in the tachyon detection grid, as it was linked to twelve other starships during the grid's initial deployment. ( ) In 2369, the Hood underwent yet another major systems upgrade, this time at Starbase 134. ( , okudagram) Later that year, there was warp power testing on the Mark VI warp drive of the Hood. This starship sent a message to Sector 9012 via Relay Station 182-A on an encoded epsilon channel. ( , okudagram) Dominion War service The Hood fought in several engagements during the Dominion War. In early 2374, it was part of the task force that participated in Operation Return, the attempt to retake Deep Space 9. ( ) In late 2374, the Hood participated in the First Battle of Chin'toka, traveling in close formation with the . ( ) Postwar service In 2379, the Hood was part of Star Fleet Battle Group Omega, a group of starships assigned to Sector 1045 near the Romulan Neutral Zone to intercept the Scimitar. ( ) File:Hood with Enterprise-D.jpg|Orbiting Deneb IV with the in 2364 File:Starfleet Mission Status, 2367.jpg|The Hood is listed on a starship mission status in 2367 File:Tachyon detection network activated.jpg|The Hood acted as a focal point in the tachyon detection grid in 2368 File:USS Hood, Sacrifice of Angels.jpg|The Hood in Operation Return, 2374 File:USS Hood, Tears of the Prophets.jpg|The Hood fires upon a deactivated orbital weapon platform, 2374 File:Battle group Omega.jpg|The Hood is listed as a participant in Battle Group Omega, 2379 | }} Appendices Background information There has been some controversy regarding the registry number of the USS Hood. The ship was first seen on-screen in in effect shots created by ILM, using the original studio model built by them for . No registry number was visible in these shots, but on pictures available on-line, the model was clearly labeled "USS Hood, NCC-2541". http://www.ussalbion.co.uk/hood.html Had this registry number remained canon, it would have made the Hood a close contemporary sister ship of the [[USS Repulse|USS Repulse NCC-2544]], further establishing a Starfleet practice that when a ship is named for a historical counterpart they are sometimes paired in the same class with other contemporary historical counterparts. The historical and were contemporary British battle cruisers who shared a similar fate in World War II. Other examples where this was practiced were the and the as well as the [[USS Monitor|USS Monitor (NCC-61826)]] and the . Apparently the original labeling was forgotten about or ignored by the production staff, as another, much higher registry number, NCC-42296, was devised later and used consistently in various LCARS graphics, for example the starship mission status and the screen showing Star Fleet Battle Group Omega. Nevertheless, a profile view, shot for, but not yet used in the first season of the new The Next Generation series, turned up in the second season opening episode as the USS Repulse NCC-2544. However, it would take until 2012 for the remastered version of the episode, that the registry number "NCC-2541" became discernible, though only just barely (and therefore overlooked by the digital artists at CBS Digital), on the aft of the warp nacelles, thereby providing the on-screen confirmation that the model originally was indeed relabeled "NCC-2541" in 1987. The Hood s appearance in "Tears of the Prophets" was confirmed by John Gross and Karen Sickles of Digital Muse in a post by DS9 Visual Effects Supervisor David Stipes on the newsgroup alt.tv.star-trek.ds9. He noted that during the labeling of the CGI model of the USS Hood, a typographical error was made, mistakenly giving it the registry of the "NCC-42768." http://groups.google.nl/group/alt.tv.star-trek.ds9/msg/5cad94e573c0e008 According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia the USS Hood, like its ''Constitution''-class predecessor, was named for British admiral Sir , who fought and died in the during , though that reference was dropped in the last edition of the Encyclopedia. The Star Trek Fact Files, part 86 states that the Hood was named for 18th century British admiral (incidentally a direct ancestor of Horace Hood) after whom the ill-fated World War II British battle cruiser HMS Hood (launched and christened by Horace Hood's widow) was also named. Apocrypha The USS Hood is mentioned in numerous Star Trek novels, e.g., , Demons of Air and Darkness, A Time to Heal, Articles of the Federation and A Singular Destiny. The latter describes the Hood as still being in service as of 2381. According to the Malibu Comics ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' issue #6, the Hood participated in the Battle of Wolf 359 in 2367. Therefore, she would have been the sole vessel surviving the battle as referenced in . In the TNG PC game A Final Unity, if the Enterprise was destroyed, a message plays where a Starfleet admiral says that the USS Hood had been dispatched to investigate. The USS Hood was one of the playable Excelsior-class starships in skirmish mode in Star Trek: Legacy. External link * cs:USS Hood (třída Excelsior) de:USS Hood (Excelsior-Klasse) es:USS Hood fr:USS Hood (NCC-42296) ja:USSフッド(NCC-42296) nl:USS Hood (Excelsior klasse) Hood, Excelsior class